GI likely killed at San Antonio base

Army Spc. Ian Patrick Morgan's stepfather, Robert Anderson Sr., said Morgan “was fun, had a great sense of humor, an infectious laugh, an all-around great heart.” Morgan was not a trouble- maker, his stepfather said.

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SAN ANTONIO — A soldier found in the stairwell of his barracks at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston over the weekend is believed to have been killed.

The Army said Spc. Ian Patrick Morgan, 28, was pronounced dead early Sunday at San Antonio Military Medical Center. He was found at the Benner Barracks, a quarters for single soldiers near the 502nd Air Base Wing headquarters.

U.S. Army North and investigators didn't say what happened, but a person familiar with the incident said “we do have suspicion” Morgan was a homicide victim. The news shocked his family.

“I'm very upset to think that maybe someone took his life,” said his stepfather, Robert Anderson Sr. of Tonawanda, N.Y. “If something happened, I can't think of anybody being that upset with Ian.”

Morgan was a 16-year-old paperboy when his father, Robert, died of cancer. Anderson took Morgan into his home and informally adopted him after his mother relocated to Georgia, leaving the boy to deal with an addiction to pills.

“I went though about a month of picking him up where he was staying, taking him for treatments, trying to get him into this program and that program, and I was not having much success,” Anderson said.

“So I kind of got fed up and I said, 'You know what, get your bag, you're moving into our home,' and he did, and his life straightened out.”

Anderson said the boy lived with his family for six years before following in the footsteps of his father and a grandfather, both veterans of the Army.

Intelligent and kind, he quickly fit in with the Andersons and then, later, with the GIs he befriended in boot camp, helping them with tests and obstacle courses.

“He was fun, had a great sense of humor, an infectious laugh, an all-around great heart,” Anderson said. “He was someone you wouldn't have to worry about being a troublemaker or stirring up a bunch of chaos in others' life.”

Described as “a peacemaker and a helper,” Morgan still had troubles. He came to Fort Sam from South Korea, where he broke a pelvis, fractured his eye sockets and suffered head trauma after falling nearly three stories from the terrace of a nightclub.

Anderson said Morgan was known for partying in South Korea, and that he continued to drink at Fort Sam and was in counseling. But, he added, Morgan had begun spending time with different people, including a Christian family here.

“From a spiritual side, I know he knew the Lord, so that helps us and the family over here,” said Anderson, who will bury his stepson after services at Fort Sam. “As far as how this happened, why this happened, no, I don't see anything good in this story.”